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Cold Spring couple shares a love for golf

Sept. 11 in any year after 2001 is a day that brings back dark memories of New York City’s death and destruction. However, for Cold Spring’s Dorothy Zumwalde and the lifelong benedict, Linus Guggenberger, it was a delightful day four years ago that the two gung-ho golfers tied the knot.

While skimming the 2016 book entitled “Tee Times at Rich-Spring Golf” written by Marilyn Salzl Brinkman, I spotted these two ageless Rich-Spring members were cited in the index dozens of times.

That gave me the urge to catalog how these two golfers are getting along at Assumption Court in Cold Spring during this pandemic that has kept many elderly golfers sheltered and locked in place.

Zumwalde, who was born in Farming in 1933, graduated from the area schools and subsequently married her husband Wally. While living in Richmond for 63 years, when the nearby Rich-Spring Golf Club opened in 1960 they both wanted to pursue golf. She and Wally joined the fledgling club as original members. Then she took up golf with gusto under the guidance of Bill Virant, the club’s first manager.

Being a social person along with her new love of golf, this passion was the impetus for Zumwalde to start a Tuesday morning women’s league in 1962. Although she only broke 100 once in league play and won the club championship the year she was ineligible due to attending summer school, she has the distinction of being the first woman golfer to score an ace in the club’s history, on the 8th hole on Aug. 7, 1979.

When asked about her favorite memory in golf, she said, “My husband Wally and I walked the hallowed Masters course in Augusta on Wednesday in 1997 and also witnessed the par-three tournament; that was the year Tiger Woods won his first Masters by 12 shots. I usually buy an azalea every year to celebrate and watch the Masters, but this year it’s on hold due to the pandemic.”

Her husband Linus has also been a fixture at Rich-Spring Golf Club since its inception 60 years ago. Born in 1926, raised on a farm near Richmond into a family of 10, Guggenberger graduated from St. Boniface High School in 1944. After a two-year stint in the Navy, he enrolled at St. John’s University and earned a degree in mathematics education in 1950.

Dorothy Zumwalde and Linus Guggenberger at a party honoring the couple at Rich-Spring Golf Club in Cold Spring.(Photo: Submitted by John Lieser)

Teaching was his next calling with stints in Hague, North Dakota, Tracy and for 28 years he taught junior high math in South St. Paul. With his love of learning, he earned two master's degrees and nearly had a third in library science, but the University of Minnesota told him he had a few more hoops to jump and he decided that two master’s degrees in a lifetime were enough.

To put his impressive learning to use, he has taught computer classes without owning one, started doing handicaps for the senior league pro bono and does math in his head and types out score sheets on his Corona typewriter.

In addition to teaching, golf was another true love. After retiring in 1983, he moved back to his Cold Spring roots and worked at River Oaks and Rich-Spring as a volunteer. At Rich-Spring he was a jack-of-all-trades; his many tasks included dragging sprinklers from midnight to 6 a.m. around the course to water fairways and greens, clearing the brush on the site of the present clubhouse so the lake would be visible and during the hot and dry years manually watering many of the trees that dot the course today.

Playing tournament golf was another passion. He has won many tournaments around the state. His low rounds have been in the 60s, and the past year he has shot his age nearly every time he has played, including a few rounds in the 70s. He plays in three leagues and has recorded four aces in his long career.

Being a bachelor for many years, he had time to scrounge courses in search of lost golf balls. One year he found seven gallons of golf balls, with each pail containing 300 balls. Being meticulous, he cleaned every ball by hand. He donated the balls to the junior golfers at River Oaks, Rich-Spring and the ROCORI High School programs.

Furthermore, he loves to share his knowledge of golf, especially with juniors. Since he is a lefty, he relishes the fact that his nephew Nathan, a lefty too, loves the game and he is able to help him improve.

As this golf love story goes, Linus found the right woman at age 90. That makes country singer George Jones’s 1987 hit song true to life. As Jones sang after three previous divorces, “I put the golden band on the right left hand this time.” It took Linus only one time.

Golf Notes:

The Greek philosopher Plato coined this proverb “Necessity is the mother of invention." Wapicada course superintendent Scot Milstroh took that saying to heart as he adapted a concept that was floating around golf courses regarding retrieving a ball from the cup without touching the flagstick. To wit: Once the ball drops below the cup, the golfer takes his putter and lifts a lever up and the ball smoothly exits the cup.

Even though Canada’s MacKenzie Tour has canceled its first six tour events, Sartell’s Ron Sanders’ event, the CRMC Championship, is still a-go as of late last month. The event is scheduled for Aug.17-23 at the Legacy Courses in Brainerd.

Congratulations to Lisa Overom, who recently celebrated 30 years of service with the Minnesota Golf Association. The Duluth native was instrumental in helping set up the new world handicap system, which many Minnesota league golfers check their handicap number twice a month.

This is the opinion of Times golf columnist John Lieser. Contact him at Jgl1943@gmail.com.